What is Buyer’s Journey? Different Stages Of A Buyer’s Journey

The buyer’s Journey is a term which is used to refer to the entire framework that depicts the progressions made by a particular buyer towards making a final purchase. Two main factors that help in determining the buyer’s journey are the proper research conducted by the entity and then comes the decision-making process.

The entities that are going to sell their products in the market have to make sure that their approach to understanding the buyer’s journey is correct so that they can use it in increasing their sales revenue.

Understanding the concept of the buyer journey

Now the buyer’s journey is a reflection of all the process that a buyer goes through before he finally purchases a product or pays for a service. These products and services are offered by the entities which can be either a small business or a company.

The evaluation of the buyer’s journey is quite essential for marketers who are trying to advertise their product and increase their sales revenue. This is because, with the help of the buyer’s journey, the advertising campaigns can track the movements of the customers and the way n which they react to a specific product that is launched in the market.

By monitoring this, they can formulate and plan such strategies which will help them in advertising their products in such a way that will encourage the customers into buying it. Also when the companies analyze the buyer’s journey, they can understand what kind of products are the customers really into and how they approach towards it.

Thus the buyer’s journey also helps the customers in understanding the needs and demands of the people. As a result of which companies can produce more of those products which have high chances of being sold out.

Also since the buyer’s journey tells a lot about how the customers approach a product, the companies and other business entities that are taking the help of advertisement are very much able to use the right kind of strategy that will hit on the weaknesses of the customers and hence motivate them in buying the product.

This way they can make a good relationship with their customers as well. So the buyer’s journey is all about the journey that depicts the purchase process of the customers. This is the path through which the consumers advance before finally purchasing the product.

This framework proves out to be of a great gulp when it comes to increasing the sales revenue and the profitability of a particular company or any other business entity.

As important as it is to understand the buyer’s journey, so is the correct implementation of it. By evaluating the buyer’s journey in the right manner, one can quickly estimate the right marketing approach that will lead to a demand for a particular product in the market.

Now one of the most crucial things to know is that the buyers’ journey is not constant. It varies from one industry to another. It depends entirely upon the type and the nature of the industry in which the buyer is being referred to.

One of the best examples to understand this situation would be to consider two different kinds of industries. Let us consider those two different industries to be saying the Business to business and the business to customer industry.

Now the functionality of the B2B industry differs completely from the feature of the B2C sector. This way the buyer’s journey too will vary. Now many of the marketers fail to understand this and instead consider these two different situations to be the same. But this may eventually lead to a big problem.

If the buyer’s journey is analyzed in the wrong manner, then it would lead to an adverse effect on the advertising campaigns run by the companies. This, in turn, would affect the relationship that the company holds with its customers and this will then lead to a decrement in the whole sales revenue of that particular company.

So it becomes quite essential for the companies and the other business entities to know that one can’t risk their business by misunderstanding the buyer’s journey of their field. To underestimate this would be a blunder that merely should be afforded at any case.

Now consider an example of how the whole buyers’ journey works. Suppose there is this electronics company which sells all the electronics products. And now they are selling it in the market.

So here first of all the company need to have an in-depth knowledge of how the customer’s journey goes in industries like these. First of all, this company will make the customers aware of the electronics items that they are selling.

Suppose their main focus is mobile phones. So now they will advertise on a large scale so that people living in every nook and corner are aware of the mobile phone that they are selling. Now once the buyer develops their interest, they will start speculating and collecting information about that product.

This can be related to the various specifications, the new features and other fasciitis that the mobile phone has to offer. After the customers have finally gathered all the information, they will start making companions between his company and the other competitors in the market.

They will compare the mobile phones on various parameters like the storage, the RAM, the camera pixel and most importantly the price. And now once the customer gets convinced enough that this is the product he has been searching for, they will then make the purchase.

This is an elementary example of how the buyer’s journey works and how it makes a significant impact on the growth and the profitability of the company.

What are the different stages of a buyer’s journey?

Now the buyer’s journey can be divided into four simple stages. All of these stages are mentioned below-

Stage 1 – developing an interest

This is the stage where the buyer becomes aware of the product. They will come to know about the existence of such a product that they have desired for, or maybe they were in need of for a long time, but perhaps they weren’t aware of the fact that the particular product existed.

Stage 2 – Information gathering

Now once the consumer becomes aware of the fact that a particular type of product exists, he or she will start gathering information about it. They will try to know about the facilities it provides or the features that particular product has. And then they will try to analyze how this would fit into their requirements.

Stage 3 – Seeking for different options

This is the stage where the person reaches a stage where they become fully aware of the product and the facilities or the features that the product has. And now in this stage, they are ready to seek for other option.

Maybe they will end up finding a similar product by any other rival company which may be more affordable. And if they are unable to find any such product with same or better features that too at a lower price, they will then move towards the fourth stage.

Stage 4 – the final purchase

This is the stage where a customer reaches when he has made all those research and is entirely satisfied with the facilities that the product has to offer. At this stage that random customer becomes a potential buyer and finally purchases the product.

Thus these are the several stages of the buyer’s journey. And it is essential of any marketing campaign first to analyze and understand it thoroughly and only then should they go ahead with all the planning process of a proper marketing strategy.

How can the companies use the buyer’s journey for their benefit?

Now that we understand what the buyers’ journey is made of, it becomes essential for the companies to use it in the best possible way to enhance the growth of their own companies. Now for the companies to tackle with the buyers’ journey and to make the best out of it, they should approach it in a stepwise manner.

1) The companies need to define their buying persona

The companies first need to understand the journey that their targeted customers, i.e. their buyer’s take. And for this they need to understand their customers, their needs, their demands, and their income and how much are they willing to.

2) The companies need to understand the journey that their buyer’s take

Once the companies can figure out who their potential buyers are, their job becomes to figure out the different process through which they will approach their customers.

Mapping the content to the buyer’s journey

And once the customers are known and their journey is understood, the last and the final step so far the company is to map the journey in which they will be tracking down every single step of their customers and address the challenges they may come across through this journey.

In this way, the buyers’ journey plays an important role for the companies who are selling their products in the marketers. By analyzing the buyer’s journey, one can come up with solutions that will help them in overcoming the challenges and increase their sales revenue.

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About Hitesh Bhasin

I love writing about the latest in marketing & advertising. I am a serial entrepreneur & I created Marketing91 because i wanted my readers to stay ahead in this hectic business world. You can follow me on Facebook. Let's stay in touch :)